Hecuba Allotted to Odysseus

Catalogue ID: 04-trojan-cycle/093-hecuba-allotted-odysseus

Cycle: Trojan — Sack / division of spoils

Version line: Euripidean / Apollodorean

Sources: Euripides, *Trojan Women* 277–292, 1277–1332; Apollodorus, *Epitome* 5.24; cf. Euripides, *Hecuba* (Polymestor sequel); Ovid, *Metamorphoses* 13.429–575 (Roman dog metamorphosis — 04/084)

Source file: /workspace/greek-myth-catalogue/04-trojan-cycle/093-hecuba-allotted-odysseus.md

Characters

Andromache — fellow captive; allotted to Neoptolemus
Cassandra — daughter; allotted to Agamemnon (parallel)
Hecuba — Trojan queen; allotted to Odysseus
Odysseus — Greek master by lot
Polyxena — daughter; sacrificed at Achilles’ tomb
Talthybius — herald of the assignments

Places

Cynossema — later revenge and dog-metamorphosis strand (cross-ref)
Ithaca — nominal destination under Odysseus
Ships — departure into slavery
Troy — place of captivity and allotment

Themes

Narrative

Among the royal women cast by lot after Troy’s fall, Hecuba, widow of Priam and queen of the ruined city, was allotted to Odysseus. Euripides makes her dread that master above others—the man of tricks who had urged Astyanax’s death and cold counsel throughout the war. She leaves the stage of *Trojan Women* toward the Greek ships as Odysseus’s slave, having seen Cassandra dragged to Agamemnon, Polyxena claimed for Achilles’ tomb, and Andromache given to Neoptolemus. Apollodorus lists the same allotment: Hecuba to Odysseus. Later tradition may take her instead along the Thracian coast (Polymestor, Polydorus’s murder, her revenge and metamorphosis into a dog), but the primary post-sack assignment in the tragic and epitome line is Odysseus. Catalogue the allotment itself—queen to the Ithacan—as a separate hinge between sack and nostoi/Thracian sequels.